1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical multi-pin plug connections and, more particularly, to a multi-pin plug connection system with a multi-pin plug connector for the connection of single or multiple unequally constituted multi-conductor cables of the round and/or ribbon type to multi-terminal socket bars, particularly the standardized socket bars of the printed circuit board modules of an electronic control unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recent years have seen a great increase in the use of multi-conductor electronic transmission cables with multi-pin plug connectors, not only in the field of data processing hardware, but also in connection with modern industrial production machines, due to a very rapid growth in the volume of electronic data and electronic control signals which need to be transmitted between the control center of the production machine and the various points of control input and output on the machine.
Facilitating and forcing this trend is the realization that a centralization of the electronic control functions of a production machine in a control center and the use of a control computer can bring with it decisive advantages in terms of a wider range of productive adaptation of the machine, as well as in terms of the ease with which the operational program of the machine can be adapted to changing production requirements.
This situation applies, for example, in the case of a modern injection molding machine, where the changeover from the production of a one part to the production of another part may involve changes in a large number of control parameters on the machine. The availability of prerecorded operating programs on interchangeable information carriers--magnetic tape cassettes, for example--reduces the changeover from one operational program to another to a problem-free routine task.
On the other hand, a production machine of this kind will require rather complex electronic circuitry which, if malfunction occurs, may be difficult to service and to repair. The complexity of such servicing and repair work can be greatly reduced, however, through the application of the building-block principle to the electronic control center, by using removable, readily exchangeable electronic circuitry modules with pluggable connections which may form part of a data bus, for example.
While it is relatively easy to standardize the connections between the various electronic circuitry modules at the data bus on the back panel of the control center, it is generally not possible to similarly standardize the plug connections for the connecting cables which lead from the control center to the various points of control input and output of the production machine. The particular machine configuration may necessitate the use of an assortment of different cables, from round cables with only a few conductors to ribbon cables with several dozens of parallel conductors in a single cable.
A variety of different multi-pin plug connectors, adapted to the multi-conductor cables in terms of type and size, are employed in a plug connection system which is known from the advertising brochure "Das Berg Backpanel-System" of Du Pont de Nemours GmbH, Max-Plank-Str. 11, in 6047 Dietzenbach, Germany.
In the past, therefore, the various multi-conductor cables had different multi-pin plug connections at the back panel of the control center. The absence of uniformity in these connections reflects itself in correspondingly high production costs and in more difficult assembly operations, as well as in considerable space requirements, when a plurality of different multi-conductor cables have to have pluggable connections at the same circuit board module.